


Red Eyes of the Sheikah

by socksock



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, Pre-Calamity (Legend of Zelda), Sheikah!Zelda, The Sheikah trio are good parents, princess in disguise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:40:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27490600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/socksock/pseuds/socksock
Summary: Sheik spent her childhood hopping from one excavation site to another with her researcher aunts.  She got to see the world and watch her aunts use explosives to remove the Divine Beasts from the rock.  She got to learn how to fight and how the ancient Sheikah tech worked.While her aunts grew progressively more nervous every time the king sent a letter, Sheik found herself looking forward to them: They were always delivered by the same knight, who always brought his son along.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 41
Kudos: 297





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter beta-ed by jenseits-der-sterne.

Only half of the elephant had been excavated from the cliff-side, the other half still locked in the blue crystal of the Zora's Domain. That meant that the cavernous inside of the beast was filled with shadows and dark places. There were deep pits and huge, frozen water wheels. Sheik's Auntie Impa told her to "Stop climbing the water wheel!" which was unfair, because she was sure she could reach the second wheel if she just had ten unsupervised minutes. Her Auntie Purah told her to "Get out of that pit!" which was immensely unfair because it was the best hiding spot on the Divine Beast without being allowed to climb the water wheel to the upper levels.

Her Uncle Robbie (who was not really her uncle the way Impa and Purah were) directed her away from the blocked doorways sealed with crystal and rock, and towards the other direction where the excavation team had cleared off a whole balcony. "Look at that! That's a sight worth writing home about. Imagine how many other ancient relics are hidden in that rock!"

But Sheik was only really interested in the outside of the Divine Beast if she got to watch the excavation team chip away the rock and expose new sections. She liked it best when they brought in the explosives, but Auntie Impa always made her watch from all the way down on the bridge over the river. 

It was a pretty normal day of seeing if she could squeeze through the gate to the room they couldn't get to yet, when the knights arrived. 

In their plate armor and heavy boots, they were so loud coming down the scaffolded stairs outside on the cliff face, that everyone inside knew they were coming before the knights arranged themselves in neat ranks on the balcony. One of the knights with the red plume in his helmet, a neat blond beard, and tired eyes stepped forward. "We're here to speak to Lady Impa."

Sheik scrambled up the first few spokes of the water wheel (which was by now an easy climb) so she could watch and listen without being seen.

Auntie Impa handed her clipboard over to one of her assistants and stepped forward. "How can I serve the Crown?"

It was a boring conversation about the king wanting a report and how they were there to ferry letters and blah blah blah... 

Sheik had started to zone out when a blond head popped out from the spoke of the wheel above her and leaned upside-down to grin at her. She nearly toppled off her spoke but didn't, because she was a Sheikah and infinitely graceful, thank you very much.

"Hi!" the boy whispered. He was not great at whispering. "Are you a Sheikah?"

She grabbed the end of her long, white hair and waved it at him. "Obviously."

"I've never met a Sheikah. How old are you?"

"Eight."

"Me too. But you look like an old lady."

"I do not!"

He changed his grip on the edge of the spoke and flipped himself over to land beside her. It wasn't the most graceful maneuver, and he stumbled sideways onto his butt when he landed. "I'm Link."

"Sheik."

He pointed to Auntie Impa. "Is that your mom?"

"My aunt. Is that your dad?"

"Yeah." He grinned with pride. "He's a knight. I'm going to be a knight one day too."

"I'm going to be a scientist."

"Does that mean you know how to get up there?" He pointed up to the second water wheel and the level above.

Her eyes darted down to where her aunt looked sufficiently distracted by the knights. "You have to be very quiet," she instructed. 

He pressed his lips together and mimed turning a key.

Together, they scramble up the next two spokes of the immovable wheel until the one they were on was angled upward and the next one would be too steep to climb. They eased their way to the end of the spoke, grinned at each other, then jumped down onto a spoke on the higher wheel. From there, they weren't sure what to do, as the spokes were farther apart on this wheel, and therefore much harder to climb. Instead, they swung around to the inside of the wheel and the empty space there, and they slid down until they were at the bottom of the inside of the wheel, still a good ten feet above the ground. 

They investigated a nearby treasure chest, but also a huge block of stone on top of it. They tried for a while to lift it, and then Sheik pulled out a knife and they tried to bash the chest open. Link pulled out a snack of salted seaweed tubes, and they shared while they strategized. Sheik was convinced that if they could get the wheel to turn, the stone would slide off. 

Link pointed down to the pit below them and asked about the terminal at the bottom. It was on a platform, held up by chains, which were attached to a gear with a crank. They hopped down and tried to turn the crank, Link throwing himself out over the pit to grab onto it and use his weight to rotate it half a turn. The platform rose about a foot, but then Link couldn't figure out how to get the crank to go back up. He dropped to the ground, and the terminal fell back into the pit with a  _ clunk _ . 

"Don't touch that!" a man barked. Sheik looked up to find Link's dad glaring at them, half angry, half exasperated. Sheik knew that look well. "Go play outside."

Link looked up at her from the bottom of the pit. They both shrugged, then ran outside and up the scaffolding and to the nearest pond where he showed her how to catch frogs and she showed him how to throw knives. She was very good at catching frogs and dared him to lick one she caught, which he readily did. He was very good at throwing knives and they got progressively more competitive until Uncle Robbie came to collect her.

"Quit corrupting that boy. Come on. It's time to eat."

#

To Lady Impa of the Sheikah,

In addition to your report on the state of the Divine Beast excavation, I request an update on the object hidden in the woods. It has been three years since I've laid eyes on it. I would like you to commission a painting, so that I might feel assured of its well-being and I can display it to remind the people of Hyrule that hope lives on in safety.

Sincerely,

His Majesty, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule

#

To His Majesty, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule,

Due to security risks surrounding the subject in question, I cannot allow details to be released to the public. You entrusted its care to me, and you trusted my methods. I assure you that it is safe and cared for, and every day it grows more ready to face the challenges of this age.

Your servant,

Lady Impa of the Sheikah

#

Sheik was ten when the knights returned, this time to Eldin as the Sheikah neared the end of digging Vah Rudania out of the side of the volcano. She was up on the spines along the top, when she saw them approach along the winding path around the side of the mountain. It was a long way down, sprinting and leaping and swinging down level after level, and she reached the ground only just a bit after the knights arrived. They'd already greeted Auntie Impa and Auntie Purah and begun their boring conversation. Of course, it was less boring this time as Sheik was starting to understand that the Crown provided their funding, and therefore keeping the knights and the king happy had a direct effect on Sheik's ability to hang around the Divine Beasts.

She was not expecting them to be the same knights she’d met for a week two years ago in the Zora's Domain, but was delighted at the sight of the blond boy standing behind his father. Sheik grinned and took up a spot at Auntie Purah's elbow, trying to catch Link's eye.

His gaze was locked on the ground just before Impa's feet. Sheik wondered if he'd noticed her shoes. She wiggled her toes to try to get his attention.

Link's father pulled a sealed letter from inside his armor, where it was tucked against his heart, and handed it over. Auntie Impa took it with a frown. "We'll await your response in town," he said.

"Very well."

As they turned to leave, Link's eyes briefly rose to meet hers, and she gave him the most joyful smile she could manage considering how uninterested he looked at seeing her again.

"Come on, son." His father put a hand on his shoulder and guided him back down the mountain. Link left without turning back.

Sheik frowned down at the boy. Auntie Impa and Auntie Purah frowned down at the letter.

#

That just wouldn't do. She needed an explanation for why Link had barely acknowledged her. She had a theory that maybe he'd done something to get himself grounded. Or maybe he didn't remember her. Or maybe he'd decided he didn't like her anymore. That happened sometimes with the friends she made moving around so much. One year, she spent the whole summer running around with the Rito kids, and the next year they all told her that she couldn't hang out with them anymore because now their favorite spot was atop the spire and she couldn't fly, and she'd had to prove that she was an excellent climber and that she could glide just as well as any of the rest of them if she had her paraglider.

But no, she and Link were friends. She just needed to shake whatever was wrong with him out of him.

She hurried down the mountain to Goron City in the night, and slipped up to the inn where the knights were staying. Actually, the knights were still outside, sitting in a circle, passing around bottles of Goron whiskey. That made it easy once she got inside to walk right up to Link's bed and shove him.

"What!" He sat bolt upright, and she shushed him harshly. "Sheik?"

"Oh, you  _ do _ remember me?" she snarked.

He frowned at her.

"Get up," she said. "Let's go."

He gave her a questioning look.

"I want to show you something."

His eyes slipped to the inn door and the knights outside.

"Come on." She elbowed him, then grinned. "We can sneak out. Scared?"

He glared at her, then scrambled out of his bed.

Luckily, he was good at sneaking past the knights, and they were out of the city in a matter of minutes, at which point they let their pace slow. Suddenly, the silence turned awkward.

"How have you been?" she asked.

He shrugged. A disappointing thought occurred to her: maybe he'd changed too much to be her friend anymore. 

"We've found all four Divine Beasts. I've been on all of them. We were at Vah Medoh last month. That's a big bird we found in a mountain in Hebra. It's freezing, but there are these snowcoat foxes, and I sneak up on them and tackle them and they're so soft, but  _ so mad _ . Next we're going back to Vah Ruta. It's almost all the way out of the cliff-side now. The inside is all lit up bright, and there's fewer places to hide. We got a ladder hooked up to the second level. They're still talking about how to get it all the way out of the mountain, because they're worried that the Divine Beast will just crash into the river once the rock isn't holding it in place. All four of the Divine Beasts are now almost all the way out."

His posture loosened as they walked, and he stopped frowning as much.

"Ah ha! Here we are," she announced. Before them spread the hot springs, steam rising into the air along with the embers and ash, the water glowing jade. She kicked off her shoes, unbuckled her belt, and tossed her loose, white jacket to the ground, leaving her just in her purple shorts and high-collared shirt without sleeves. She pulled a pair of hair sticks from her pocket and wrapped up her hair atop her head. She waded into the water, then looked back to see Link still standing there on the shore.

"Are you coming?"

He hesitated, that frown back on his face.

"It's so hot that the water dries almost instantly when you come out. And the water's hot, but it's cooler than the air. It's the strangest thing. It almost feels like you're flying. And the Gorons say it has healing properties."

The lines on his forehead smoothed out, and a moment later, he was tugging off his boots and struggling out of his shirt.

She managed not to shriek when his chest was exposed. There were great, blotchy bruises in black and purple, fading to green and yellow at the edges, covering his side from hip to armpit. Part of her wanted to storm up to him and demand to know who’d hurt him and where they lived and why he didn't know how to defend himself. But instead, she flushed red and bit her lip and splashed into deeper water where she could submerge herself and actually swim.

She swam a full lap, and by the time she was back to him, he was floating on his back, his eyes closed with an easy smile on his face. His side looked less violently gross. She splashed him, and he spluttered and flailed and laughed, and then he was splashing her back, and she was shrieking and trying to dunk him. He could do a handstand, but she could do one too. He could do a cannonball, but hers made a bigger splash. By the time they pulled themselves from the water, her skin was bright pink and his bruises had vanished.

"Can we hang out tomorrow?" he asked as they entered town, relieved to see that the knights were still awake outside. He grinned at her hopefully, and she beamed back.

"Of course! I still need to show you the mine carts!"

When she slipped back into the Divine Beast, Auntie Purah was still awake, sitting on the floor with the lamps lit, papers spread before her in a messy semi-circle, a pencil behind each ear and one in her hand. "You're out late," she said, bending in to make another note.

"The knights aren't leaving until Auntie Impa writes back to the king, right?"

Auntie Purah looked up at that, and gave her a curious look. "Nooo. I suppose not."

Sheik nodded. 

"Goodnight."

"Sweet dreams," Auntie Purah sang.

Auntie Impa didn't finish her report to the king for a week and a half.

#

To Lady Impa,

In addition to your progress report on the state of the Divine Beasts, I require a report on the item in the Lost Woods. I require details on its spiritual awakening. What powers have appeared? What training is it receiving? How much time does it spend communing with the Goddess? I have been patient about the lack of progress reports, but my patience is wearing thin.

-His Majesty, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule

#

To His Majesty King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule,

The subject of interest is progressing beautifully. It grows in brilliance, strength, and skill each day. Truly, we are blessed by the Goddess to have such a resource to defend us. Rest assured, it will be ready when the time comes.

I am eternally grateful that you had the strength of character and presence of mind to surrender it to our care, given how badly the Yiga continue even to this day in their attempts to destroy it. 

Your servant,

Lady Impa of the Sheikah.


	2. Chapter 2

At thirteen, Sheik was as adept as anyone at using the Sheikah slate. She was much better than Aunt Impa (who mostly focused on the managerial side of the project) or Uncle Robbie (who was more interested in the mechanical workings of the Divine Beasts than their programing). Aunt Purah often claimed to have other stuff to do, and just handed the slate over to Sheik for the day. 

So Sheik was in the thick of it as they tried to get Vah Medoh online. There was a different, strange problem with every terminal, which required them to open the silly things up and climb around inside, scraping off dirt and rust. Whole sections of wiring needed to be replaced and recreated, with Robbie stretching a mess of wires across the floor. There was a power issue in the right wing, and the left wing was so iced over that they couldn’t even tell what needed to be done until they brought in huge braziers to de-ice everything. The glowing blue liquid had frozen and needed to be thawed, and then the salinity was slightly off, and they needed to run everything through a filter. Sheik's hands were chronically dyed blue and there were rust streaks and electrical burns on her jacket.

They were working on getting terminal 3 online when Revali, the chosen Rito Champion, arrived. He came by fairly frequently to inspect the Sheikah's work and remind them that it was ultimately  _ his  _ territory, even though he couldn't do anything without their help. What was unusual though was that he came on foot and was accompanied by an escort of knights. The one at the front had a red plume on his helmet, but was substantially shorter than the other knights. Not Link’s dad then.

“I thought you'd have this mess cleaned up,” Revali said, swatting wires out of the way with one claw as he made his way into the room.

Sheik climbed back inside terminal 3 to hide. It was on a raised platform, so maybe no one would notice she was there. She was not allowed to be rude to the Champions. 

Aunt Purah was, tho.

“No wonder everything you do takes so long. Trying to navigate through—“

Aunt Purah shrieked, “Link! Is that you?”

Sheik smacked her forehead into the underside of the terminal and swore under her breath. She peeked over the edge of the platform to see that it was, indeed, Link. 

Auntie Purah had rushed up to him and plucked off his helmet. His hair was longer, pulled back into a ponytail. He looked very strange in his armor, his shoulders broader than they should have been. He looked mortified.

“Look at you!" she said, tucking his helmet under her elbow. "A full blown knight now! When’d that happen?”

Link's cheek twitched. His voice was barely audible, and he refused to make eye contact. "Last year."

"Congratulations! You should have written to us! We would have sent you a present. Wouldn't we have, Sheik?"

His eyes snapped to hers, as if he'd known she was there the whole time but the sound of her name was a call he couldn't deny. He assessed her so quickly that she couldn't tell what he thought, so fast that she didn't have time for embarrassment over her new glasses and the latest developments in her chest before his eyes were back on Purah.

"And what's that?" Purah grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down, nearly causing him to stumble with her manhandling as she squinted at the hilt of the sword on his back. "Is that..." She straightened and pulled back suddenly. "Ah. Well, that gives us a bit of a timeline, doesn't it?"

"Good," Revali said. "Maybe you'll finally make some progress."

She huffed, and planted her hands on her hips. "Or maybe we could leave and never come back, how about that?"

"Be my guest. I won't be the one in trouble with the king."

"As if he's not constantly pissed at us already. I assume that's why  _ you're _ here," she said to Link, "since you never come by for social visits." She held out her hand for a letter.

Link hesitated before shaking his head. "I'm to deliver it directly to Lady Impa."

"Fiiiine," Purah groaned. "She's down in the camp. She can set you up with a place to stay."

"We can wait in Rito Village for her response."

"Rito Village? That's six hours away! You'll stay here. I swear it's not that cold."

Link gave her an uncertain look, probably suspecting that Purah was up to something, probably weighing whatever plans he’d already made vs how much farther his knights could walk through the snow right that second. He nodded his head, almost in resignation.

They left without another look at Sheik.

Aunt Purah turned to her and pursed her lips. "You've got your work cut out for you this time."

Sheik nodded.

#

She truly did have her work cut out for her. She never heard him speak, and he seemed to answer questions mostly in nods or shakes of his head. He was stoic and dedicated to his message delivery duties and seemed to purposefully make it so he was never alone. Like hell she was going to go up to him in front of his knight friends and ask if he was up for a snowball fight. Not that she was worried about how that would make him look to his subordinates, but the other knights would definitely label her a foolish little girl, and she couldn't have that.

So instead, she and Impa barged into the little camp the excavation team had set up on the leeward side of the beast under Medoh's lifted wing. "Coming through!" Impa shouted, throwing out her arms and walking in a high-kneed stomp through the snow. Sheik followed behind, using the magnesis rune on the slate to glide the battery pylon along in front of her, maneuvering it gracefully between the temporary buildings and keeping it far from any people or anything conductive to electricity. She set it in position carefully, directly under the terminal on Vah Medoh's lifted wing. They made such a scene that an audience grew around them.

This included Link. Not that she was looking at him. He still didn’t seem as though he was going to speak to her.

They looked up to the terminal, Sheik waving an arm in a wide, sweeping wave while Purah let out a high-pitched whistle. Two whistles responded, dim and carried away by the wind. Purah responded with one, long whistle, and in response Robbie tossed down a long coil of wire. Sheik rolled her shoulders, lifted the slate, and froze the wire in mid-air, giving her enough time to switch to magnesis, lock onto the metal weight on the end of the wire, and lower it gently when the stasis broke. She pulled out the cryonis rune, activated it under her feet, and rode the block of ice up until she was at a height with the top of the pylon. 

Maybe she was showing off. Just a little.

Purah handed up a pair of huge rubber gloves, and Sheik pulled them on so they came up to her elbows. Purah pulled off the wire's weighted end and then handed up the wire, which was a good three inches in diameter.

Sheik let out another whistle, waited for Robbie's go-ahead response, and then reached out with her elbows well out of the way and plugged the thick wire into the plug on top of the battery, throwing the lever to lock it in place. Lightning lit under her hands, made her hair stand on end. It was so close that she was nearly blinded by yellow-green light, so close that she could hear the enthusiastic hum as the power launched up the wire.

High above them, Robbie crossed his arms over his head, and Sheik leaned back in to throw the lever again. She threw all her weight back to jerk the wire out with a mighty heave. She stumbled as it came loose. The electricity cut off, and she looked up, pushed her glasses up onto her head, and waited for a sign from Robbie in the sudden silence. 

He appeared above them, and then he struck a pose, one hand on his hip, one pointed outward and upward.

Purah let loose a wild "Wooo!" while Sheik laughed and turned to hop down from the ice block, only to find Link right behind her, standing as if he was expecting her to fall. He held out a hand to help her down.

She blinked at him, but took his hand. She dropped to the ground, dusted the frost off her pants, and looked up to see him looking at her. Impressed. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something.

He was still holding her hand.

"I..." She got lost staring at him and had no idea what she should say. "I need help! Yes. Carrying...um...that." She pointed at the nearest object, which happened to be a chest with Goddess knew what inside of it. Without a word, he released her hand, walked over to pick up the chest, and heaved it into his arms.

They walked with nothing but the crunching of snow under their boots. Sheik thought of and dismissed five different conversation starters. Finally, she took too big of a breath, and he looked over at her expectantly. So then she had to say something. “What do you need to do to become a knight? Is there some sort of challenge? Like an obstacle course? There’s a challenge for becoming an adult member of the Sheikah tribe, but they won’t tell me what it is.”

He was silent long enough that she suspected he wouldn’t answer. Then, with his new quiet voice, he said, “There are 35 trials, five for each of the seven noble virtues. They’re mostly combat and archery, but also equestrian trials, trials of endurance and strength, and tests of manners.”

“Manners!” She shook her head with a laugh. “I couldn’t be a knight then. Even though I could probably beat you at all those other trials.”

His cheek twitched. 

“I could!” She slipped a knife from her sleeve and twirled it around her fingers. “I’ll duel you right now.”

He gave her what might pass as an amused smile these days and kept walking.

She slipped her knife back into her sleeve and tucked her hands behind her back. “Perhaps I’ll practice my courtly manners, and then I’ll become a knight too, and then you’ll see me every day and be completely unable to avoid me.”

He hesitated again. “As pleasant as that would be—“

“ _ So mannered _ !”

“—there’s also a hereditary component. You’d need a knight without heirs to adopt you and then retire.”

“So...wait. Did your father retire to pass the position on to you? That’s so much pressure! You’re only thirteen!”

His good mood vanished. He clenched his jaw.

"Did—" She felt as though she'd been punched. “Oh! Oh, Link, I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged.

"You're shrugging! What!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. “Put that silly thing down!”

As soon as the chest hit the ground, she stepped over it and pulled him into a hug. He was shorter than her, and his armor was cold even through her coat. “Goddess! No wonder you’re a mess.”

“Not a mess.”

“Shut up and take my hug.”

He returned the hug tentatively, and she had to wait far too long before he sagged and leaned the side of his head against hers. "You're a good friend, Eek."

"Goddess!" She shoved him off and took a step back, nearly tripping over the chest. "Don't call me that."

He had his stupid new teeny tiny smile as he lifted the chest again.

"Since you missed me so much," she says, "It's a good thing that Auntie Impa takes so long to write letters. You'll have long enough to teach me manners."

"She surely won't take that long."

"And I can teach you how to shield surf."

His eyebrows rose ever so slightly.

Success!

#

To Lady Impa of the Sheikah,

As we grow closer to presenting the Champions, my advisors have recommended that they should be given a token of the Crown's support. Something unifying. We have decided that the Crown will provide clothing for each of them, all in the same color although in different styles. I want the blessing of the Goddess sewn into every stitch. I have provided the chosen fabric, along with the clothing patterns and the Champions' measurements. You will have ample time to have these materials transported and the clothing completed and returned.

-His Majesty King Roham Bosphoramus Hyrule

#

Purah finished the letter with Robbie leaning in to read over her shoulder. Impa traced a rune in the air with two fingers, leaving a glowing trail behind. When she hit the last point of the symbol, it ballooned into a dot, then a ball, then a dome that surrounded them like a glowing blue shield. As long as Impa held that spot with two fingers, they would not be overheard.

Purah shook her head and asked, "I’m sorry, Does this say that he wants the princess to  _ sew clothes for the Champions _ ?"

Robbie snorted.

"Apparently so," Impa said, a defeated set to her shoulders.

"But why does he assume she knows how to  _ sew _ ?"

"I expect most princesses can sew. It's a gentle past-time that denotes social standing, so he expects that it's been included in her education."

"How on earth were we supposed to know  _ that _ ? He should have given us a list!"

Impa shrugged.

Robbie folded his arms over his chest as he leaned back on his heels. "It sounds like a test to me."

Purah scoffed. "A test to see if we're raising her right? Gag me."

"No," Impa said. "A test to see if he can get access to her. This kind of command doesn't bode well. Next he'll demand we bring her back."

"Probably doesn't help that Link went to the Lost Woods and came out with a sword instead of a princess," Purah said.

Robbie nodded. "The king definitely suspects."

Impa hesitated before saying, "Should we...fake a note from her?"

Purah bit her lip. "That seems cruel to both of them."

They stood in silence for a long moment. "The Calamity is coming," Impa said. "There's no stopping it. It might be time to consider that her powers probably won't appear naturally until adulthood. But if the king demands her return before then, I don't want to think of what would happen to her."

"But what would we even do about that?" Purah asked. "We can't just shake her until her powers pop up."

"Trying wouldn't hurt," Robbie said, and Purah smacked his shoulder.

Impa took a deep breath. "We should have her face the Sheikah trials early."

"What?"

"The self-examination and the visit to the spirit realm are sure to put her in better touch with the Goddess."

"You want to get a thirteen-year-old high and have her contemplate the universe. Great idea."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"We could fake a Yiga assassination on the king, then have someone comment on how lucky it was that the princess was safe with the secret Sheikah encampment in the Lost Woods that's so well hidden even the hero of legend couldn't find them."

Impa rolled her eyes and ignored her with a sigh. "What are we going to do about these damned Champions clothes?"

Robbie took the letter from Purah's hand and flipped the page to the thick set of patterns. "I can take one for the team, but you have to take over all my duties until I'm done." 

“Lucky duck,” Purah said.

He flipped another page, then paused. "They picked a Hylian Champion."

"Yes," Impa said. "They did."

Robbie shook his head. "I'll make his shirt big enough to grow into."

#

The next time they saw Link, Sheik was fifteen years old and working in the desert to get Vah Naboris battle ready. The beast was fully functional, and Urbosa could make it walk and move, and she could fire the laser, but Impa and Sheik were convinced that Urbosa could bring the same level of finesse to battle with the Divine Beast that she brought to battle with a scimitar. Urbosa was happy and willing to try.

Sheik attached a glowing blue button to the center of Urbosa's forehead, a device they'd uncovered years before but Sheik only recently deciphered and activated. It transmitted a waveform to the slate that changed depending on what Urbosa was doing, and Sheik had a theory that she could get a wave function of Urbosa's battle style, then find a matching form for Naboris, and pairing those together would make controlling the beast in battle more streamlined.

Ubrosa twirled her scimitar through a showy twist so fast it hummed. A hop step twisted into a spin, her blue skirt flaring. Then she froze, her blade plunged into the heart of an invisible opponent, her eyes fierce. She abruptly dropped the stance and turned out to the desert.

A cloud of dust marked the approach of a single sand seal. Purah shielded her eyes and squinted at the horizon. Sheik lifted the slate to use the telescope function, making her the first to mark the sky blue of Link's tunic.

She lowered the slate and turned away. "Let's continue."

Urbosa raised a single eyebrow, but re-toook her stance and spun her scimitar through a whirling figure eight that moved over her shoulder then slipped behind her back, where she dropped the blade and caught it again in her opposite hand.

From over Sheik's shoulder, Purah frowned at the wave form. "This is the same one we've been getting."

"The showing off form," Sheik agreed. Showing off was Naboris' default state. Its very existence was impressive, and it showed this wave form when doing nothing at all. So did Urbosa sometimes.

Sheik bit her lip in thought, then pushed her glasses to the top of her head. "What if you sparred?"

Urbosa considered. "Now that would be interesting."

"Aunt Impa, would you mind sparring with her?"

Impa was still turned towards the desert and the plume of dust that grew ever larger. Her eyebrows were drawn tight together. She showed no sign that she'd heard the request.

Sheik rolled her eyes.

"You do it," Purah said, slipping the slate from Sheik's hands.

Sheik sighed and pulled her long blade from the sheath at her back. Fine. This would be a good way to not think about Link and how he clearly had no interest at all in being her friend since he never responded to any of her letters, because he was obviously too important now that he was a Champion to bother with people who were nice to him. This would be a good way to not think about whatever demand from the king Link was bringing that would keep Impa's face frozen in worry and irritation for the next several months. It occurred to her that if Impa ever refused to comply with whatever unreasonable thing the king wanted this time, Link was there to force them to comply. It also occurred to her that this wasn't a matter of  _ if _ Impa would ever be pushed too far as to refuse, but  _ when _ .

She took up a ready stance, her weight on the balls of her feet and her center of gravity low. Urbosa took her stance a few yards away, her brow lowered and her lips pursed. 

"Ready when you are," Purah called.

Sheik struck. Urbosa was expecting it, expecting her to move first, for her to strike hard and fast. She blocked Sheik's every swipe, but lost ground, step after hard-won step. Offense was not a Sheikah strong point, and she'd get a lecture later about not fighting smart except that Impa wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention. Sheik darted to the side and rushed in, and Urbosa blocked her before finally hitting back with sweeping, powerful moves that flowed from one swipe to another like an avalanche, rolling ever forward.

And Sheik was in her element, limber and lithe and melding her dodges into precision strikes that Urbosa had to twist out of an attack to block. She was shadow. She could flow through the attack and past it until Urbosa leapt backwards out of range and held her sword up to end the bout. Only when Sheik sheathed her own blade, did she turn to their audience. Paya and Impa watched her with knowing looks, the slate lowered as if they hadn't needed it in a while. Link stood between them, a look she could still read as interest on his face.

He had an inch on her now, which made her excessively irritated. His hair was more windblown now that he didn’t have to wear a helmet all the time. His jaw had gotten stronger as he’d lost the fat of his baby cheeks.

Everyone was staring at her.

"Did you get it?" she asked, only then realizing how out of breath she was.

Purah nodded and held up the slate to show off a brand new wave form.

"Great."

She turned and walked away, heading back into the Divine Beast.

#

"I've never sparred with a Sheikah warrior before."

She spun from where she was adjusting the power output from the antenna atop Vah Naboris' front domed turret, a task she'd assigned herself just to get away from Link. Still half inside the window of the Divine Beast, he rested his arms on the dome as if waiting for her to invite him up. He did not look guilty at all.

It made her want to punch him.

She pushed her glasses on top of her head, set down her slate, and jerked her head at him. His eyes darted to the curved roof, then back up at her. She lifted an eyebrow in challenge as she drew her sword, and he frowned, seeming to finally understand that she was ticked. Slowly he pulled himself the rest of the way onto the roof and drew his sword. 

One afternoon two years ago, they’d invented a game of chicken, seeing how close she would bring her hand to that sword before one of them lost their nerve and pulled away. She didn't really want to be bitten, and he didn't really want her to get hurt.

She grit her teeth and fell into a ready stance, watching for any hints of weakness in his form, any twitch of hesitation. He sized her up as if expecting a trap. 

Good. He should.

He moved first, darting forward with a slash, which she blocked backhanded, then flipped her hold into a slash from which he leapt back, only to duck in again with a stab from which she twisted away, following up with a spinning slash of her own. He moved faster than even Impa, pushing her to keep up, to block quicker, strike faster, faster, faster. He kept them at surprisingly close quarters, hindering them both, keeping them tight, their moves locked and fierce. Backing up meant planting her feet on the angled part of the dome, and she refused to risk her footwork, which came faster, faster, almost in a dance. With him so close, it was hard not to hold eye contact. From so close she could feel the strain in his arm through his blade as it pressed against hers, almost as if she had a grip on his bicep, almost as if she could feel the tense and strike of the muscles in his core, up through his chest. She knew how he'd move. A bead of sweat ran down his throat, and she kicked him in the chest, only for him to grab her ankle and bring her down with him.

She rolled, but he rolled with her, his sword at her throat and her sword hand pinned above her head.

"Kicking," he gasped, his chest heaving against hers, "is cheating." He grinned at her from just a few inches away, his smile sharp as his blade.

She narrowed her eyes and teleported out from under him in a flash of blue, reappearing in the air just over his head, bringing her sword down as she fell. He pushed himself to sitting, but landed hard on his back with her knees on his shoulders and her sword-point at his throat.

His eyes were wide in surprise.

She leaned in and sneered at him. " _ That _ ," she said, "is cheating."

"Sheik..." He swallowed hard enough that her sword bobbed against his Adam's apple. "Are you mad at me?"

The nerve!

"You didn't respond to my letters," she hissed.

His face shifted from shocked to confused. His hand had come up to hold her thigh. "You wrote me letters?"

She was off him in a heartbeat, her sword sheathed and the slate back in her hand. She marched down the dome, slipped her legs off the side, and slid feet first back in a window on the side of the turret.

"Sheik!"

She didn't look back, even as the pound of his running boots gained on her.

"Sheik!"

He grabbed her elbow and spun her to face him, which just added to the force of her fist flying towards his face. It made a smacking noise as it slapped into his palm when he caught it.

They stood. Frozen in time. Her face twisted in fury. His more openly hurt than she'd ever seen it. Not that that said much.

"You wrote me letters?"

"No," she lied.

"What did they say?"

"It doesn't matter."

They stood.

"The other knights read my mail."

That startled her. "The...what?"

"Anything that's not an official missive gets intercepted by the veteran knights. They watch out for the younger knights. So we don't...get distracted...from our duty. I never knew you'd sent anything."

She ripped her hand from his grip. Her face was flaming. "You should have told me that."

"I never thought you'd write to me."

"Well, that was stupid of you." She couldn't look him in the eye.

His thumb rubbed circles into the crook of her elbow, an unconscious gesture that made her stomach tighten. "They..." He cleared his throat. "They must have thought you were a distraction." 

Her eyes lifted to his. 

"Would I be?"

Slowly, jerkily, he nodded. His head lowering closer with every bob. Her hand drifted close enough to grab his tunic at his waist in a fist.

"Kids!" Purah shouted. "Urbosa's about to leave, and Robbie's nearly got dinner ready!"

They broke apart and stared at each other from more than an arm's length away. Her face was so hot that she needed—she had to—She spun away and walked out of the turret with her head held high, not daring to look back. 

She heard his footsteps follow in her wake.

#

At dinner Purah directed Link to sit next to her at the table. If they were any other family, Sheik would assume that her aunt’s motivations lay in keeping her away from a teenage boy. But they weren't a normal family, so Sheik assumed it was to keep a better eye on him in case he started voicing demands from the king.

This left Sheik to sit across from him, meaning he could find her foot under the table and press his toes longingly to her ankle in a way that made her heart flutter. 

Impa spent the meal lost in thought, stabbing at her fried greens.

"Since when can you teleport?" Link asked.

"It's a technique warriors can learn after they pass the Sheikah trials."

"What are those like?"

She looked up at him and smirked, their eyes locked together across the table. "That's a secret."

His gaze heated. She bit her lower lip to slow the pounding of her heart. His foot pressed tighter against hers.

"Do you  _ mind _ ?" Purah groaned. "I'm  _ eating _ !"

Sheik didn't mind in the slightest, thank you for asking.

She was probably not very subtle about getting him to follow her outside that night. 

She waited behind Naboris' foot, and when he walked past, she grabbed him by the front of his tunic and yanked him back, slamming him against the beast's foot. They stared at each other from two inches away, his hand coming up to take her wrist, his thumb slipping under the hem of her fingerless glove to press against her pulse point. She twisted his shirt tighter, and his other hand was at her waist, drawing her in until her hips were flush with his and his hand was firm against her lower back, drawing her in until he broke eye contact to bow his head and drag his lower lip from her collar bone to her ear. His teeth nipped at the fabric of her high collar, and she sucked in a breath, fisting in a hand in his hair. He breathed hot and fast into her ear, and she simmered in the delicious way they pressed together. She couldn't help the way her chest moved against his as she gasped.

He twisted in a move that nearly had her throwing out a leg to trip him, and he pinned her at the hips against the wall. A flare of desire lit in her eyes, and his were dark and heavy like his weight against her. Their lips hovered so, so close. Parted to swallow every breath. Their heads tilted so they would fit together perfectly—she knew it, she could feel it, how perfect it would be. She could feel the phantom tingle of his lips even as his hands held her so tight they might bruise. She wasn't going to kiss him first. She wanted him to want it, to want her, to break through his shackles of duty and honor and  _ kiss her already _ . And yet there was something thrilling in the battle of it, in the tension twisting its way into her stomach, his stomach, their stomachs pressed so tight together that the knot of tension bound them together in their not-a-kiss.

They were always very fond of playing chicken.

She grabbed his belt at the side and drew him closer, his thigh sliding between her legs, her hand gripping the back of his neck to hold him right there, so close, right there, so she felt the moment when he broke, this shift of his hands, the release of tension in his neck, the puff of air against her mouth as he sagged into temptation.

And a roar ripped through the desert.

She shrieked and drew her daggers, and he grabbed the hilt of his sword as they sprung apart, her eyes darting wildly. Something horrible was happening. Naboris was tearing apart. A molduga was right below them. Lightning had struck the side of the beast.

No.

It was worse.

Because there was Robbie, lit blue in the glowing light of one of his ancient weapons made of hundreds of teeth-like blades spinning around a chain with an almighty screech. His mouth was pulled into a frown and the flat mat of his goggles over his eyes lit up in bright light and dark shadows. He looked absolutely willing to disembowel both of them.

"Goddess, Robbie! Stop it!"

He did not stop it. He just stared at them with his chainsaw running, his expression unreadable behind his goggles.

"Fine!" she shouted over the roar. "Be that way. I hate you!"

Robbie tilted his head slightly to the side.

Sheik glared at him. She turned back to Link, popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek, then glared at Robbie some more as she stomped her way back inside.

#

To Lady Impa of the Sheikah,

It is high time we considered the princess’ future. With this missive, you will find several letters from suitors addressed to her. She must read through them and respond to those who stand out to her. 

Furthermore, the lack of progress on her spiritual development leads me to believe that more intensive steps must be taken. She must visit the Springs of Courage and Power within the year. I can provide a protective detail of a dozen knights to escort her. Inform me of what date she will leave the forest for her pilgrimage.

-His Majesty King Roham Bosphoramus Hyrule

#

To His Majesty King Roham Bosphoramus Hyrule,

Her Highness is too focused on her spiritual training to entertain the idea of suitors. I will not encourage her to engage in such distractions.

Furthermore, the pilgrimage you suggest would be too much of a risk. There have been recent reports of Yiga activity in both Faron and Akkala. Their attacks have grown more bold in the past year with their assassination of Lord Enrich, their attempt to infiltrate the citadel, and their attack on the Temple of Time. I understand your impatience and the depth of your concern, but we will be in an even more grave position if the princess is killed. Her safety is my top priority. If we visit the springs, it will be in secret and not accompanied by a large troop of soldiers who will advertise our position for miles around.

Furthermore, I politely insist that you refrain from referring to her by name in any further missives. If the Yiga intercepted either of these letters, they would find her, and all our work would be for not.

Your Servant,

Lady Impa of the Sheikah

#

"Have you read these?" Purah asked, unfolding another letter from another suitor and giving it a look of disbelief. "This man is thirty-two-years-old and  _ is known to have potent seed _ ! Can you  _ imagine _ saying that to the future queen of Hyrule?"

"This one owns two hundred head of cattle and describes himself as  _ strapping _ ," Robbie said, holding up another letter.

"Nice! Put that in the  _ For Purah to Poach Later _ pile."

Robbie slapped it down into a short pile in the middle of the table and picked up another letter.

Purah shook her head as she continued to read. "I can't believe old Rhoam is doing this. It's so gross. She's way too young."

"I don't know," Robbie said. "She's going to bang that boy. She’ll probably do it while he's wearing a shirt that I made, and I'm mad about that."

"Snap. Good for her. He looks good in blue."

"Stop it. Both of you," Impa said. She had two fingers raised in the air to hold the last point of her privacy rune, but her eyes were reading through a letter, her frown growing more and more pronounced.

"We're just trying to lighten the mood. You look like you need it."

"I do. I really do."

"We have whiskey," Robbie offered.

"Hmmm." Impa now had deep wrinkles between her eyes, disrupting the shape of the Sheikah eye painted on her forehead.

"What's that you're reading?" Purah asked.

"Nothing," Impa said, folding the letter quickly and tucking it into an inside pocket on her jacket.

Purah narrowed her eyes.

Impa sighed. "Are we in agreement that we can just burn all of these?"

"Yes," Robbie said.

"But my pile of strapping rich guys!" Purah whined.

Impa let the privacy shield fall and gathered up the stacks of letters.

#

To Her Highness, Princess Zelda Harkinia Lycoris Hyrule,

My name is Link, and I'm the Hylian Champion and wielder of the Master Sword. Thank you for the Champion tunic that you made for me. It is both fine and comfortable. I wear it nearly every day.

I visited the Lost Woods when I drew the sword. It was a lovely place. I found it very calming. You're lucky to live there, and to live with the Sheikah. They are good people, and I'm a little envious that you have their unwavering support.

I hope you are enjoying your studies and that you are not too lonely. I look forward to working with you to defeat the Calamity, but hopefully not too soon.

Your Servant,

Link, Hylian Champion


	3. Chapter 3

An official missive for the Hylian Champion from Princess Mipha, Champion of the Zora. Champion eyes only:

Dear Link,

I believe with the assistance of the Champions, we can find a way to get personal letters to you. How exciting! I’m so happy to help!

Love,

Mipha

#

Dear Link,

Great news! Vah Ruta can now lower her head and sweep aside large hordes of moblins with her trunk, a fact proven by her performance last week. I suppose that's not really something to be happy about, as the monster attacks are coming more frequently and in such absurd numbers, but we did trounce them easily. I killed 312 moblins, which is a new record for me.

We're going to spend the next few days and see if we can make the Divine Beast’s water bursts more precise in terms of both location, spray diameter, and force. Actually, everyone is focused on location and only I care about force, but I strongly believe it would be valuable on occasion to use half power and be able to strike twice before needing to recharge. I'm hoping we can practice on the lynel up the mountain, but Impa is dragging her feet on it.

Robbie made me a dagger using the ancient technology. It's about six inches long and glows blue. It's hard to hide in my sleeve because it's so bright you can see it through my shirt. I'm going to figure out how to get thicker sleeves.

It's Purah's night to cook. I wish you were here to help her. Miss you.

Love,

Sheik

#

Dear Sheik,

I am in Faron. During monsoon season. I don't think I will ever be dry again. Sorry if this letter is unreadable from all the damp.

I'm good at sneaking (thanks to a very small amount of training involving someone tackling me if I screwed up at hide-and-seek), so they keep sending me off by myself to watch over this one spot and keep it safe. I got rid of all the lizaflos weeks ago, and there is absolutely no one here but me now. They're not giving me very many details, which is probably good because I hate knowing secrets.

Actually, there is a troop of monkeys here. They don't like me very much, but I'm trying to make friends. It's not going well.

Sometimes when I get to stay at the inn, at night I can see Farosh the dragon. I tried to ride him. It did not go well. Maybe you'd have better luck with your rubber gloves and stuff.

I’ve been thinking about the last time we sparred. I wish we could go again. I think I’m getting rusty.

I miss you.

Love,

Link

#

An official missive for the Hylian Champion from Chief Daruk, Champion of the Gorons. Everyone else, hands off!

Hey Little Guy!

Your girlfriend has been raising a ruckus for a week now about how Rudania is the "wrong temperature." I don't notice, and she says it's only off by twenty degrees or so, which doesn't seem like very much. I don't know, I'm not so good with all that Shiekah tech. She's been making me run diagnostics all week, and I'm  _ beat _ . 

She's a real go getter, that one. Maybe sending her letters along will give her a distraction!

See ya later!

-Daruk

#

Dear Link,

Robbie has a girlfriend, and he is absolutely useless. She came to visit, and I’m waiting for her to complain about the heat, but she hasn’t yet. She also brought Impa a new tapestry, and she gave me a book. She’s trying to butter us up, and that makes me suspicious. Robbie is too deluded to date. I’m worried about him.

The book is fascinating tho. It’s about the shrines in the Tabantha region and how they were found and excavated using folk tales. Nothing yet about how to activate them, but it’s still an engaging read. Maybe she isn’t so bad.

Purah is off to the Great Plateau, because they found a new kind of shrine. She calls it the “Shrine of Resurrection” and says it can heal even the gravest of injuries (or it would if it were functional). It’s an extraordinary find! But she did take the slate, and that’s making it absurdly difficult to fix the temperature in Vah Rudania. It’s 105 degrees in here! Daruk doesn’t even notice!

Do you remember that hot spring we visited? We should visit again.

Thinking of you ,

Sheik

#

Dear Sheik,

The king keeps having me write letters to the hidden princess. I think I'm the only person he knows who's the same age as her. It's awkward. She never writes back, but I figure she must be lonely, and she's probably not allowed to write back in case she accidentally gives away information about her location. It's weird, but I suspect that any letters to her must be going through your aunt, so I volunteered to deliver them to her, and everyone including the king seems overly pleased with that. I think most of the knights are a little fearful of your aunt. And your other aunt. And your uncle.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get to see you soon.

I've been thinking about you a lot. Little things like how much you move your hands when you talk, and that dumb wrist thing you do to show off with your knife. But also things like how your neck smells really good. 

Goddess, I'm sorry. It's winter, and every winter the guys turn into complete horn dogs even though they've taken multiple oaths to  _ not _ . They tell these stories every night and they just get more and more graphic as they try to one up each other. It's getting to me this year, but if I say anything about it, they roast me. I'm going to eat dinner in my room from now on and let them think I'm a huge prude. 

Goddess, I want a hinox to fight. Or to see you.

You know, because those are like the same thing.

Love,

Link

#

An official missive for the Hylian Champion from Lady Impa of the Sheikah. Champion eyes only:

Dear Link,

Did you realize that Impa can send you mail, and she has said  _ nothing for over a year _ ! I swear, my family are the least helpful people on earth.

With the Divine Beasts up and running, we're back in Kakariko. I really miss the Divine Beasts, but we haven't been back to Kakriko since the spring festival last year, and it's good to have a real bed and walls again. There are other teenagers here. They hang out in the lake above our house, and they leap off the waterfalls and then race back up. I let them win a lot.

They have a lot of drama. I can't keep up. It's exhausting. I had to make a chart of who has a crush on who, and then I didn't hide it well enough, because Impa found it and asked seventeen million questions about it. Why does she care? She's so embarrassing.

You should come visit soon. I'll show you how to jump off the waterfall. (Also the girls talk about kissing  _ a lot _ , and I think I've heard enough by now to be good at it, and I want to practice.)

I miss you like crazy.

Love,

Sheik

#

It was Sheik's seventeenth birthday. She had big plans to steal the fruit cake Impa made for her, hide under the house with the cake, a fork, and a new book, and then go out to the woods with her friends that evening to try to explain the constellations to them while they all got a bit drunk. It was going to be a very good day.

There was a fog over the ground that morning. She leaned from the upstairs window of her room, smelling the thin mountain air and smiling at a world in which she was seventeen. 

The thin cry of the warning horn sounded—not an alarm but an announcement of visitors, and she popped up on her toes until the single horse came into view and stopped at the small stable.

"Link!" she shrieked, and spun to fly down the stairs and past her aunts and out of the house. It was her birthday, and Link was here! She raced up the hill and arrived at the stable just as he and the stable master were finishing up getting his horse settled. He stumbled when she threw herself at him, but caught her and righted them both. "You're here! I can't believe you're here!" She rubbed her nose and forehead against the side of his face like a cat, and she giggled as he turned to nuzzle her back. He set her back on her feet and pulled back enough to smile at her, warm and pining, dopey and soft enough for her to raise a hand to his cheek to make sure he was real.

The station master cleared his throat, and Sheik turned to glare at him until he held his hands up in surrender and laughed at her. She lowered her hand from Link's face, but he kept hold of her waist.

"I'm going to completely re-plan my day now that you're here. Come on, let's go give Aunt Impa your letter so we can get started."

His smile slipped into a cringe.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's...the letter for your aunt...it's a big one."

"You mean it's long?"

"I mean your aunt's not going to like it."

"She never likes them."

"This one's different."

"You know what it says?"

He nodded. "The king told me."

Her mind spun with how that could be anything other than dragging her aunt to the castle to explain herself. But Link was relatively calm. He seemed mostly reluctant and embarrassed. Not really guilty. So it couldn't be that bad.

Sheik tried a smile that came out awkward. "Let's deliver your bad news and then go enjoy my birthday while she thinks on it."

His lip twitched back toward a smile. "Yeah."

She slipped her hand into his as they walked, and his smile inched up towards his eyes, his thumb stroking over her knuckles.

She only dropped his hand to throw open the front doors of the house and announce, "Guess who's here with bad news!"

The sight before her stopped in her tracks. Impa was in her chair, legs folded and back straight as if she were greeting a dignitary rather than Link. Purah stood on her right. Robbie stood on her left. They all looked deathly serious.

"What—"

Link stepped past her to approach the Sheikah. He bowed at the waist and pulled a letter from inside his tunic. It looked very thin.

"His Majesty, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule sends a letter to Lady Impa of the Sheikah."

Without moving, Impa asked, "You know what it says?"

Link averted his eyes. "Yes, my lady."

Impa closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Purah stepped forward, plucked the letter from Link's hand and set it in Impa's fingers before retaking her position.

Impa held the letter, but didn't open it.

After a long moment, Robbie lost patience, took the letter out of her hand, twisted open a butterfly knife, and sliced open the envelope. He slipped the letter back into Impa's fingers. With shaking hands and a sigh, she pulled out the letter and unfolded it.

Purah and Robbie leaned in to read it with her.

As one, they sagged. Impa lowered the letter and stared into space. Sheik's heart sunk.

"Is this it?" Impa asked.

"His Majesty said I'm to accompany you."

Impa nodded to herself. "Link, I need you to wait outside for a moment."

Link lowered his head and clenched his jaw. He murmured, "His Majesty said I'm not to let you out of my sight."

Impa barked a laugh. "Because I'm likely to try some Sheikah trickery?"

Link's face heated.

"Step outside, son," Robbie said. He pushed his goggles up to his forehead. Sheik's stomach clenched. It was downright disturbing to be able to see her uncle's full face.

Link traded a look with her, but she had nothing to offer him but her own confusion.

He nodded, and stepped outside, and as soon as the door closed, Sheik rushed to her family and snatched the letter from Impa's hands.

_ To Lady Impa of the Sheikah, _

_ I have been more than patient. But in twelve years you have provided no evidence that Princess Zelda can wield her sealing power. I have had nothing but your word that she is even alive, and I no longer trust your word. You will return Princess Zelda to the castle immediately, or I will send troops into the Lost Woods and Kakariko. _

_ You have seven days. _

_ -His Majesty, King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule _

"Oh Goddess," Sheik said. "So you're turning her over? Are you going to go to the Lost Woods to get her?"

"She was never in the Lost Woods."

"You—" A twitchiness worked its way down her spine, a need to move, a need to act. Why did her family look so sad? Why did— "She's dead, isn't she? She's been dead this whole time, and you've been lying, and you can't turn her over."

Impa's head snapped up, her despondency breaking under the weight of confusion. "What? No."

"Then why do you look like someone's died?"

Impa took a deep breath. "Because I don't trust the king to keep her safe or to treat her right. I don't trust that he'll show pride in her accomplishments, that he'll show her affection, that he'll—In the twelve years he's sent me letters, he has shown no interest in her beyond her use as a political pawn or a tool against the Calamity." Impa's eyes rose to Sheik's, and the fierce loyalty in her glare, the bite in her voice loosened Sheik's hold on the world she knew. "She is so much more than that. She is kind and strong and brilliant and pig-headed and enthusiastic." Impa's eyes filled with tears. Sheik's did as well. She had no idea why.

"You..." She felt dizzy. "You almost never see her."

Impa smiled at her—a secret, proud smile—and reached for her arm.

The floor seemed to tip under her feet.

"No." She jerked out of Impa's grip. "That makes no sense. I'm a Sheikah. I passed the trials."

Impa's smile grew, even as a tear skipped down her cheek. "You did."

"I—I don't look like the princess."

"It's a glamor," Purah said. "A good one too."

"What? How much of it? Are you saying this isn't what I look like?!"

"Just the hair and the eyes."

"What color are my eyes?!"

Purah frowned. "I think they were green?"

" _ Green _ ! Eww!" She backed up further, trying to get away. "No. I would remember if I were a princess."

"You were...not in a good place when we took you in," Impa said. "It was safer this way. And in a way, it's not even a lie anymore. You  _ are _ Sheikah. You  _ are _ my family."

"I...I can't be the princess. I don't know—I don't know anything! Link talks all the time about how confusing court life is. And I don't know  _ anything _ ! I don't know how to—how to—Are they going to make me wear a dress?!" They'd think she was some kind of wild animal at court.

Impa bit her lip and let too much time pass before saying, "We'll deal with that when we come to it. I will speak to the king—"

"The  _ king _ ! Sweet Hylia, the king is my  _ father _ ! I have a father, and he's alive, and I'm going to  _ meet him, _ and he's a  _ huge asshole _ !"

"You shouldn't say things like that."

"You're just going to hand me over to him?"

Impa hesitated.

"You know he doesn't care about me!"

"You read the letter Sheik."

Sheik's face contorted into a sneer. "I did. So you're going to sacrifice me to protect the  _ real _ Sheikah."

Impa's face turned murderous. In a heartbeat, she was on her feet and in Sheik's face. "Never question my loyalty to you."

"Your  _ loyalty _ ? You mean you did all this because I'm the princess?! Not because...Do you even love me?"

"How dare you! I love you like a daughter, and I have dreaded this day since you were five-years-old!"

"Then why are you doing this?" 

"I don’t want to do this, but I have to. For years, I have done everything I could to delay it, and now I am out of options. Self-sacrifice is at the heart of the oaths you took as a Sheikah. Any one of us would die to protect each other. Any one of us would die to protect Hyrule. If you don't understand that after passing your trials, then maybe you  _ aren't _ a real Sheikah."

Purah squeaked and covered her mouth with her hands. Robbie sighed and dragged a hand through his hair.

But Sheik couldn't look away from her stare down with Impa, whose eyes were red and furious. 

The red of Sheik's eyes was a lie.

She turned on her heel and stomped out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

#

It was hours later when Link found her. After pacing round and round a mountain top, screaming and swearing and crying, she'd worn herself out and flopped down on her back in the grass. 

Link took a seat beside her and didn't say anything. 

She couldn't even look at him. Her face was probably blotchy, and her hair was probably a mess from how she'd clawed at it.

She sniffed, willing her voice to be less thick. "I thought you weren't supposed to take your eyes off Impa."

"I'm not supposed to."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I—" He took a deep breath. "I'm neglecting my duty to check on you."

She snorted. 

"What happened?" he asked.

"They didn't tell you?"

"They haven't talked to me. When you ran off, Purah followed after you, but I knew where you were going and she followed your fake trail."

She hummed and kept her eyes on the wispy clouds above them.

"So." He sighed. "I'm guessing that Impa's been lying about the princess. She's dead or kidnapped or...in a magical sleep or something. I've thought that's what's going on for a while. And I'm guessing she told you, and you're scared for what the king might do, or upset that she lied, or that we're basically screwed when the Calamity rises."

"The Calamity!" She barked a harsh laugh. "You know, in all this, I hadn't even thought of that. Oh wow. We're  _ doomed _ ."

He threaded his fingers through hers. "We'll find a way."

"Easy for you to say."

"Is it? I'm the one who's going to have to fight it."

"I'll fight it too. Maybe that will help."

"Yeah. I bet it will." 

He didn't sound like he meant it, not really. His voice sounded as hollow as she felt inside. It was as if he'd made peace with how they were going to lose. 

She pushed herself to sitting and turned to face him. "I never meant to lie to you."

"I know. You're just finding out today, so that makes sense."

"Maybe it is good they didn't tell me. I would have either had to lie to you or blown their cover."

"They were protecting you."

She nodded slowly, tearing grass from the ground a fistful at a time, stripping the wider pieces with a thumb nail. They had protected her.

She looked up into Link's eyes. "Remember when we first met and you asked if I was Sheikah?"

"Yeah?" He frowned at her, waiting for her to go on.

But she didn't. She couldn't. She waited for him to piece it together so she wouldn't have to say it. 

His frown melted slowly off his face, his realization like a slow crash that wouldn't stop.

"Oh," he said.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Oh."

His hand twitched over hers. Then pulled away. 

She felt as though she'd been kicked. She'd thought she was out of tears, but they welled up in her eyes again.

A moment later he took her by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug, wrapping her tight, one of his hands in her hair, which was not her hair. She sobbed with relief, and then sobbed into his shirt, pressing her messy face to his collarbone. He pressed a kiss to her temple, and she grabbed at his shirt.

"I should have given you those manners lessons when you first asked."

She choked on a laugh and cried harder.

#

They left in the late afternoon. Link and Purah both tried to insist that she should go ahead with her birthday plans, but she'd just given them both her most scathing look.

She didn't want Impa to come with her to the castle. She didn't want to look at the back of Impa’s head the whole time they were on the road. But Impa had snapped at her that her spitefulness was childish, and Sheik had snapped that she was an adult, even if no one cared that she was an adult in the Sheikah culture she was now an adult in Hylian culture too, and Impa had told her to start acting like it then, and Sheik had screamed that she hated her, and Impa had screamed, "Fine. If that's what you need to focus on right now!" and now they weren't speaking at all.

It was a tense trip.

Link and Purah were not having a good time, but that was Purah's own fault. She didn't need to come, and she hated riding a horse. Robbie, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the tension at all. He also didn't need to come.

About halfway down the Sahasra Slope, Link finally broke the silence by asking, "Did—This might be a dumb question. But who made my tunic?"

"Yo!" Robbie lifted a hand in the air, holding up two fingers and a thumb without turning around. 

Link's cheeks turned pink.

Sheik snorted at him. 

“What?” he asked.

“You wear that shirt every day because you thought the princess made it for you and you have a crush on her.”

"I—It's my uniform."

"Uh huh."

"I don't have a crush on—" He frowned suddenly and sat up straighter in his saddle.

Sheik gave him a tried smirk. "Yes, you do."

"This is too weird," he muttered. "Did you read any of my letters?"

"Which ones? I read all the ones  _ that got to me _ ." She lifted her voice and shot a glare at Impa's back. She wouldn't put it past her aun—put it past Impa to read her mail. 

"My boring pen-pal letters to the princess."

"No," she said. "I never saw those."

Link thought for a moment, then lifted his own voice. "Did you read them?"

Impa didn't answer. 

Which meant she had. 

Sheik frowned. She lowered her voice. "You know how the princess was supposed to be spending all these years preparing spiritually to unlock her Goddess powers and take on the Calamity?"

Link nodded.

"What do you think she was doing? Supposedly? Because maybe I should be doing that. Like, in a hurry."

"Praying I think. The king thought you were visiting holy sites in secret to speak to the Goddess."

"That's it? What else?"

He shrugged. "It sounded like she just prayed constantly and meditated and maybe ate berries and bathed in a pool of crystal water. Everyone made it sound like solitude and purity was a big part of it."

She gave him a pointed look. "If that's true, then we are fucked."

He faked a cough to cover a laugh. "Maybe. But who knows. That might just be part of the cover up. Keeping people from bothering her."

Purah turned in her saddle to face them with a bored look. "Previous queen's powers have always arisen naturally with time. The king wants you to devote your entire existence to something that's going to just happen one day regardless of what you do."

"If that's true, then why would he push so hard?"

"Because we know the Calamity is coming, and soon. Happening naturally might end up being too late."

"Then maybe he has a point."

"Well then I'm so sorry we let you have a childhood where you got to have fun. Look, we tried. We had you in the thick of it helping bring the Divine Beasts online, so the Goddess saw your devotion to Hyrule and stopping the Calamity. We had you take the Sheikah trials early to speak to the Goddess, and she didn't give you any powers. I trust her, so if she says it wasn't the right time, then it wasn't the right time."

Sheik bowed her head. It sounded more likely that the Goddess had seen her and found her unworthy.

“What did you mean when you said I wasn’t in a good place when you took me in?”

“You were there when the queen was assassinated,” Purah said. “You saw the whole thing.”

Sheik’s eyes widened. She tried to remember, but trying just made her heart beat faster.

"When we found the queen's body, we couldn't find you."

Her eyes snapped to Impa, who had stopped in her tracks and turned to face her.

"We searched all over. For hours. We thought they'd taken you. But then we found you in a tree, right in the garden where it happened. Goddess, you were always climbing trees. The king and queen hated it. They were always giving you lectures and sending you to your room and then the very next day you'd be back up a tree."

The story had the taste of truth to it. She remembered climbing.

"You were so quiet for hours that even with dozens of people rushing about, no one noticed you. I climbed up to bring you down, but you wouldn't budge. When I tried to lift you, you hissed like a cat and scratched me across the face, and I had to manhandle you down, screaming and kicking, and then...you just went limp. You were catatonic for days. Then you didn't speak for three months. We had to have a cover story—that you were my niece—but when you came out of your shock, you soaked it up like a sponge. It was comforting to you. We should have...I don't know what we should have done. Making you confront it seemed cruel, especially since you wouldn't be able to speak of it to anyone. And your belief in it kept you safe. We never worried you'd give yourself away."

Sheik had nothing to say to that.

They were crossing Rebonae Bridge when the ground trembled. The bridge swayed dangerously, the river turned choppy beneath them, and the horses danced in agitation. They hurried off the bridge and stopped in a group.

Everyone's attention snapped to the castle in the distance. As the earthquake calmed, a dark cloud rose. It twisted around the castle, and when it reached the tallest spire, it opened jaws of smoke. A roar rent at the sky, and Sheik slapped her hands over her ears like a child. The Calamity’s eyes glowed red. Horns formed from its head. The sky took on a red tinge that slowly bleed out from the castle.

"Aunt Impa?"

A hand immediately reached for hers, a vice grip on her fingers.

Link's face was pale, but he clenched his jaw and swallowed hard. He turned to her, the embodiment of determination, of courage, and she realized that he would have to fight that thing. This was the destiny he'd known he would face since he was twelve.

Terror squeezed at her throat.

She couldn't think about fighting the monster, but she knew she'd stay by his side. She knew the Sheikah would stay with them. She drew her sword.

"What's the plan?" she asked him.

He took a breath and repeated the plan she'd known since they first began excavating the Divine Beasts. "Get to the castle. The Divine Beasts will weaken it. I fight it. You seal it."

She nodded.

"Here," Impa said, and Sheik turned to her. She couldn't help how wide her eyes were, she couldn't hide the fear. Impa pulled a tin from her bags, popped off the top, pulled a brush from the side, dipped it in the ink, and made a mark across Sheik's forehead. She painted with quick, steady strokes, then tucked the tin away as soon as the eye was drawn. On her other side, Purah was leaning in to draw a single stroke of blessing across Link's forehead, having already drawn her own eye herself without use of a mirror. It looked like it was narrowed in irritation.

Link reached up to touch the stripe on his forehead, but Sheik grabbed his wrist and shook her head. Until the battle was over, only blood and sweat could disturb the mark. 

He nodded back and squeezed her hand.

Sheik pulled her spine straight and faced the monster. "Let's go."

#

The guardians moved into position on the walls of CastleTown to defend the city. Their Sheikah handlers lifted a fist in salute at Impa and Link’s approach, and Sheik took heart. The Sheikah technology she helped rebuild was ready to protect them. The plan would work. The plan would work. The plan would work until it was her turn.

And then they’d figure something out.

Link took point charging through the gate, lifting the Master Sword over his head, the sword and his tunic like a bill of passage into the city. A thin cheer rose as they tore onto the cobblestone streets. The Champion. The Champion. They would be saved.

That's when the first fireballs fell. It was like the recent eruptions on Death Mountain, balls of flame raining down onto the town, into the field behind them. She ignored them and kept moving, drawing ever closer to the Calamity that loomed and rolled overhead, blotting out the sky like a storm. Like a storm it burst with lightning. A fireball crashed into one of the guardians in the street in front of them, the blow knocking it back a step, the fog of evil flickering over its surface.

Sheik's heart stopped. The Calamity was targeting the guardians, trying to take them out, trying to destroy their weapons.

The guardian's light flickered. It's head swiveled back and forth. Then it settled, and Sheik heaved a breath. It hadn't been destroyed. Barely hurt at all.

It turned to face them. 

It changed from blue to magenta as it's eye locked onto Link.

Sheik swore. She leapt from her horse and ran, using Link's foot as a step to launch herself up, ripping his shield from his back, and forcing it in front of him just as the explosion hit, throwing the blast back to crash into a building behind the guardian.

Link was frozen. The guardian reset its laser.

She shoved the shield into his arms, shouted, "They've turned on us!" then ran for the traitorous guardian. 

The Sheikah broke apart. Arrows hit the guardian straight in the eye, one after another. It locked in place, glowing yellow and frozen long enough for Sheik to slide under it and wedge her sword into the weak point between its leg and body, throwing her sword like a lever to pop off a leg before it broke free of the stasis and pitched to one side. Above her, someone was hacking against the guardian's stone shell, which distracted it as she wedged her sword into a seam on the under casing. Using it like a lever, she popped open the casing with a mighty heave. It fell to the ground with a clunk and she shoved her sword inside and slashed at the glowing magenta wires. The guardian whined and sputtered and another leg gave out. She rolled out from under it as it exploded, Link grabbing her arm and hauling her up.

His sword glowed blue in his hand.

"One down," he huffed.

The building behind them exploded as another guardian hauled itself over the top of the dress shop in front of them. Its laser locked onto Link. 

They fought that one and fought the next and then next. With each new fallen guardian, a new Sheikah duplicate appeared, the four of them rotating through whose turn it was until the battle was full of spirits. The clones flanked around Impa as her slashes left glinting cross hatches in the air. They surrounded a guardian with Robbie, every one of them spinning with an ancient sword. They leapt and landed together with Purah, the ground shaking under the combined hit of her sword. Beneath the guardians with Sheik, they stabbed their swords in one motion and popped out the bottom with everbuilding speed. 

They fought, but there was only so fast Purah could slow them down. They fought but there were only so many opportunities to trick the guardians into shooting each other. They fought but there was only so much damage arrows could do, even if they were direct shots, even if there were dozens of them. Only so much that even the Master Sword, charged with divine light, could do. They tipped one guardian over so it couldn't move, then bombed it until it died. Sheik's sword finally broke when a guardian she was under jerked in an explosion, and her sword twisted and snapped, but at least she got it open as her blade broke. With the six inches of blade in her hand, she slashed through its wiring. 

There were only so many weapons she could snag from the hands of dead Royal Guard members.

Link had his sword stabbed to the hilt into a guardian's eye. It spluttered and smoked, but it was still charging charging, ready to blast him from point blank range. "Move," she ordered, her duplicates running to slash at the guardian's legs. He ripped the sword clear, and she stabbed in a knife and popped the eye loose, the laser still charging, now swinging wildly as it dangled. Link grabbed it and aimed it at another guardian scurrying towards them. She jabbed her hand into its eye hole, grabbed the power override and twisted. The laser went off, blowing back the approaching guardian, then throwing it back against a wall, then blowing it through the wall where it exploded, Link swiveled to the guardian fighting Robbie, who had a glowing blue axe in one hand and a glowing spear in the other. He and his clones had it surrounded, but Link got in two good hits before the ground rocked beneath them. He dropped the laser and it went off, aimed at their feet, rocking the guardian back and throwing Link into the air and nearly ripping Sheik's arm from its socket. She slashed the wires holding the eye with her free hand, and ripped out its brains with the other. Her shoulder screamed in pain, and she landed funny on one knee. She winced and let her eyes close for too long.

"Sheik!"

There were two dots on her chest. Two guardians charging to strike. No. There was one guardian, as the other had already fired. 

She rolled and it clipped her arm, the second blast clipping her side. 

Fire tore through her veins. And yet it was cold as the Hebra mountains, where she'd taught Link to shield surf, and she'd shown him how to let the cryonis rune launch them into the icy air, and she'd convinced him that he wasn't too old to make an igloo with her and he'd agreed as long as it was on Vah Medoh's back where no one could see, and they'd huddled together in a tiny igloo and been so very proud of themselves until Purah stuck her head in and told them they'd freeze to death.

Someone was carrying her, and that could not be good. She opened her eyes enough to see Robbie's clenched jaw, his every running step sending another explosion through her side. His jacket was splattered with blood.

They were moving away from the castle. Why were they moving away from the castle?

She was on a horse in Link's arms. "Hold on, Eek. Hold on." But his words blurred as the pounding hooves beat against her, slamming the splinters of her rib cage into her flesh.

Her vision blacked out as she was lowered down from the horse into Robbie's arms, rushed into the dark, then shifted again to be lowered into a pit and once again Link was carrying her.

"Over here," Purah said. The dark felt good. Calm. If she could doze off, maybe it would stop hurting.

"Stay with me, Sheik."

Her every breath was a rattle, every inhale a struggle, and every exhale excruciating. 

They were not gentle taking off her clothes. Why were they doing that? She was too cold for that. She needed a blanket, the one on her bed back in Kakariko that Nanna made for her when she passed her trials.

She was so cold. Her body twitched with shivers

"Work faster."

That sounded like Impa.

"Impa?" Her eyes fluttered open, but all she could see was a constellation of blurry blue light. She needed her glasses.

"I'm here, sweetheart." Someone took her hand. Someone else was already holding the other one.

"I'm cold." Her words were little more than a whisper.

"That's the fluid." That sounded like Purah. "It'll warm up. Give it time. You have to be patient and give it time, you hear me?" A hand came to rest on her cheek.

"Stay with us." That sounded like Link, but his voice was shaking. She could feel his breath against her knuckles. "You still have to show me how to jump off the waterfall, remember? You still...we have a lot left to do."

"Come on, Sheik," that sounded like Robbie, but there was something strained in his tone. "I've taken way worse hits than this. You can shake it off." A hand squeezed her shoulder. The grip was tight with fear.

"We're so proud of you, sweetheart. You've done so well. You've done so well, and you need to keep doing well and stay with us."

"Come on, Eek. We can't do this without you. I can't do this without you."

Her eyelids were so heavy.

"I need you, Sheik."

"We don't want to lose you, Sweetheart."

"We love you so much."

Had her body worked, she would have smiled. Through the cold and the weakness, a warm ember lit in her chest, spreading like a drop of honey, a drop of sunlight. Sunlight like the way Purah would yell  _ Snap _ when Sheik told a good joke and would groan and hide her face when she told a bad one. Sunlight like the sun on her face as Robbie set up their math lessons on the river bank below Vah Ruta, and like the way he'd dance when he got too enthusiastic about fractions, or the way she and Purah imitated his dances as a joke but over time just did them out of habit. Sunlight like Impa's praise, like the way she woke Sheik in the morning by telling her the weather and claiming it was a beautiful day no matter what, sunlight like the way she'd adjust Sheik's hold on her bow and the next shot would hit home. Sunlight like the way Link would find her hand without looking at her, the way he turned bright red when he told her he liked her glasses, the way he talked to his sword sometimes even though it never talked back, the way he sent letters to the princess never expecting a response.

The sunlight spread—up to her skin and out to her toes, up to the very ends of her hair. She took a breath—air filling her lungs all the way down to her stomach, life filling her broken body. She opened her eyes and the light was everywhere, so bright she still couldn't see.

"I love you too."

Her voice had an echo. A strength. A dozen voices behind it.

She closed her eyes and a pulse burst from her, the light pushing out into the world.

The pulse rolled over Castle Town where the guardians ran rampant, climbing over buildings, people running, cries filling the night, buildings aflame. The pulse reached the corrupted guardians and they stuttered. They sparked. They collapsed in a lifeless heap.

The pulse rolled out to the desert, where a being of smoke and evil, a monster of corrupted Sheikah parts fought to seize Vah Naboris, to the desert where Urbasa ducked and dodged faster than she'd ever moved before. The pulse rolled to the Zora's Domain, where Vah Ruta stumbled to the side as Mipha leapt from the water to stab at a blight of her own. The pulse rolled to Tabantha, where Vah Medoh tucked into a roll as Revali sent another wave of arrows at his foe. The pulse rolled to Death Mountain where Daruk had his blight in a choke hold, his feet slipping closer and closer to the edge as the monster struggled, the corruption biting harder the longer he held on.

Sheik pulled her arms from the hold of her family, and brought her fingers together, twisting them into the quick, determined forms of a Sheikah spell.

She opened her eyes and her clone stood in Vah Naboris. In Vah Ruta. On Vah Medoh and Vah Rudania. She stood, glowing gold instead of blue, her hair billowing in a fierce wind. Her Shekah jacket was neat and crisp, without bloodstains or burns. She lifted her head to look out from under a wide-brimmed hat, the tassels flapping wildly while the fresh Sheikah eye on her forehead was eerie in its stillness. 

She lifted a hand that glowed with the sign of the Triforce, and a beam of light blinded the blights, distracted them, ate away at the malice at their cores. A moment of distraction, a moment of opportunity shared across the country, and the Champions struck. A scimitar burst through the Thunderblight's chest. The Boulder Breaker smashed across the Fireblight's face, cracking its casing. The Windblight reared back as an arrow pierced its eye. And the Waterblight fell, sliced in half.

Urbosa lowered her sword and narrowed her eyes.

Revali tried several times to speak, but words failed him.

Mipha smiled. She tucked one foot behind the other and curtsied.

Daruk laughed and thrust his Boulder Breaker into the air.

Sheik came back to herself with a laugh on her tongue. Her family grabbed her arms and her shoulders and hauled her to sitting, water sloshing off of her. They fell on her in a hug, arms engulfing her from every angle, laughing and crying, heedless of the blue fluid in which she still sat.

They pulled back enough for her to see them. Enough for Impa to push back her hair, which had stayed gold, the glamor burned off by her powers.

All her power and she couldn't stop the tears from welling. "I'm sorry I was such a shit!"

"Goddess, Sheik."

And then they were hugging again. She found Link's hand and squeezed it. He pressed a desperate kiss to her shoulder.

They left the Shrine of Resurrection as the first blow from the Divine Beasts hit. The Calamity's scream made the ground tremble. 

Sheik narrowed her eyes at the dark cloud over the castle and set her jaw. The Calamity turned towards them and screamed again as the next blast hit. A blast from a machine that she rebuilt to defeat him.

From across so many miles, she looked straight into its eyes. And felt no fear.

"That's right," she said. "I'm coming for you."


End file.
